MS rejig gets thumbs up from retail channel

Software giant splits retail business unit into three in order to improve relationships with stores and distributors

Microsoft?s fine-tuning of its retail business unit has been welcomed by the channel, which says the retail focus is long overdue.

The retail and consumer business unit has been split into three business divisions. Retail sales will be headed by Julie Armitage, who will look after the relationships with Dixons Stores Group, Bytes, Tempo and other retail outlets.

The product marketing group, managed by Gillian Kent, will focus on branding for retail products, running focus groups and checking localisation of new products. The third group will focus on channel and retail marketing and will provide a communications group for channel and retail marketing. It will be headed by Natalie Taylor.

Dale Borland, director of Microsoft?s consumer customer unit, said Microsoft wanted to extend the profile of retail, and recognise its importance as a channel for the small and medium enterprise market.

Borland claimed retail would continue to be an important channel, despite the growth of Web-based sales and download sites.

He claimed that technical difficulties and time/ bandwidth issues would prevent large-scale use of the Web as a sales channel for at least three years.

Reaction in the channel was mixed. One source claimed Microsoft?s support for the retail channel had been virtually non-existent, saying: ?We had no contact with our account manager after an initial meeting.? He said the company had tended to focus on corporate and multiple accounts at the expense of retail, and any change in strategy would be welcomed.

Paul Donnelly, MD of distributor Gem, praised Microsoft, saying the company was demonstrating that it had taken on board the needs of the retail channel.